1. Buying building materials

When I started this project, I wanted it to be as easy, economical, and as sustainable as possible so that anyone can do it. The rule is: only buy if you cannot make or collect it. I knew I had no choice but to buy these for my two raised beds:

44 pieces of ‘block bricks’

Cement

Sand

7 packets of soil

2. Sourcing for free building materials

I needed bamboos to build some trellis to support creeper plants like butterfly pea plant (bunga telang) and four angle beans. I thought of getting it from my mother’s friend who grows beautiful green bamboos that she often hack and throw away. The problem that bamboos are too long to be placed into the sedan car.

If I were to foraged it, it has to be somewhere near my house. So we drove around my neighbourhood to see if there’s any suitable bamboos and found some at my neighbour’s place and the ground opposite it.

I ring my neighbour’s bell (she was a stranger before this project begins) and asked if I could chop some of her bamboos. She said yes, so we hacked them with an axe and pulled the long bamboos all the way back to my home! My neighbours were looking at me, puzzled, as I did the below:

(I have to say that this is so much more fun than buying stuff!)

3. Removing grass from the ground

The point of building a raised bed is to contain all the edible plants in it so that unwanted weed and grass will not compete with it. So before building the raised bed, we had to remove all the grass.

This is hard work. We have to dig out the roots and remove the soil from that’s sticking to the roots. Because the grass were to be thrown away, we also have to remove the soil that’s sticking on the roots by knocking it on a large rock

4. Building a raised bed

This is the only part that is not truly DIY. I asked my mother’s friend, a retiree and an avid gardener, to put together the raised bed for me. He did this:

Measure

Create a ridge

Create a straight line by poking sticks onto the edges and tie a string on it

Mix cement

Pour cement into ridges and assemble bricks

Fill cement into hollows

5. Building a ‘nursery’ using pallets

We took an unwanted pallet, remove some of the wooden planks, and make a planter box with it. It’s the ‘nursery’ where I plant seeds and stem cuttings before transferring them into the raised beds.

I got my pallet from my neighbour when he was renovating his house. But you can also get it from the person who you buy bricks and cement from; they make use of pallets to support the bricks.

RESULTS

That, ladies and gentlemen, is how I built my garden. Next, I’ll write about how I plant and maintain my garden. You’ll see what I did to enjoy herbs and vegetables like corn, basil, and ladies fingers in a matter of weeks!